After waiting what seemed an eternity, I have finally learned my exact placement and school! I have been assigned to the Academie d'Orléans - Tours (which is in the center of the country in the Loire Valley region). I have already purchased a plane ticket into Paris - I leave from Phoenix on September 22nd at the very early time of 7:50 am.Yesterday I learned that I have been assigned to teach in the city of Orléans at the Lycée Charles Peguy! A lycée is equivalent to high school, so I will be working primarily with students between the ages of 15 and 18. I am extremely pleased with this post - I love cities and was really hoping to work with high school students.
My contract is for 7 months - which means I will have a job through the end of April.
The city of Orléans is absolutely beautiful! Here are some pictures of the city:
I am so excited to live in such a beautiful city!
I have already made contact with an English teacher at my school - and he was extremely nice and very friendly! He has even offered to help me find housing! A lot of assistants live in something called a Foyer de Jeunes Travaillerus (housing for young workers). It is basically like a dorm, but usually full of international people. My contact, Alain, has offered to call them for me and find out their current rates and if they allow cats ... oh did I forget to mention that? I'm bringing my cat, Razu, with me to France! I know that most Foyers don't allow cats, but it's worth a try.
In case Razu is unwelcome, I've already started looking into housing - and I have to say, it's quite entertaining. I've found a lot of promising places, or at least I thought they were until I started converting the square meters in feet... For just 275 euros a month, you too can live in a 19.02 square meter (204 sq ft) studio apartment! Even though it's impossibly small, how cute would it be to live in a building made from stone in 1900? Or ... I could get a roommate and live in a slightly bigger (45m2 -- 484 sq ft) and even cuter place for 507 euros:
Needless to say, I am very excited at the prospect of living in an adorable apartment in France! I have always wanted to live in an apartment above a little store! Especially one made from pink stone!
The rent situation isn't too worrisome, however, since the government helps poor individuals (even foreign ones) to pay for rent. They base it on earnings from 2 years ago - so since I've been a student earning relatively little money, I can hope to get a decent amount toward my rent. How exciting!
That's all on the update front here. I will do my best to keep things current!
